Pet food used to be Human grade
The Only true Pet FOOD, Human Grade
Are you confused to what human grade pet food is? Is it for real? Worth the money? The ‘truth’ about human grade pet food.
“I’m going to feed the dog, and feed the cat.”
“Yes, you probably are. Feed the noun. You are probably feeding them feed.”
Quality food is significantly important to the well-being of those that consume it. Food – if not sourced, processed, and handled properly – can be the cause of serious health risks. Because food is so significant to the well-being of those that consume it, and because if not sourced, processed and handled properly food can become a serious risk, there are many laws governing food.
Trouble is, those food safety laws are not applied to pet food (or any animal food). That is, with the ONLY exception of human grade pet food. The only pet food that abides by food safety law is human grade pet food. All other pet foods are feed. All other pet foods (with one exception explained below) do not meet food safety laws.
Many in pet food and most in regulatory perceive human grade pet food as an extravagance. But actually, it’s not an extravagance at all. Human grade pet food is – very simply – just food. Human grade pet food is food as we know food specific for a cat or dog (containing the nutrients as needed by cats and/or dogs). Human grade pet food IS NOT smoke and mirrors feed making consumers believe it is food. It is food that has been sourced, processed and handled properly…it is food as we know food, providing our pets with the nutrients they require.
Industry has tried to make consumers believe that human grade pet food is the result of us pesky pet owners humanizing our pets. Nielsen – of survey fame – has a published report titled The Humanization of Pet Food stating “Nielsen explored how far consumers are willing to take this trend—identifying areas of opportunity for “humanized” pet foods…” Human grade pet food is not consumers trying to ‘humanize’ our pets, not in the least. Human grade pet food is (again) consumers simply giving their pets food, real food.
The ‘truth’ is, commercial pet food began as human grade. The first canned pet food in the U.S. was Ken-L Ration, the dog food was made from USDA inspected and approved meat; horse meat. From a historical website documenting the town Ken-L Ration was manufactured in, we are told the meat used in the pet food went through the same inspection process as human food. The website states the food was manufactured according to the Pure Food Law, the early version of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Even advertising of the pet food stated “US government inspected”.
But somewhere between the early beginnings of pet food (1920’s for Ken-L Ration) to present day, the FDA decided laws governing food were no longer applicable to pet food. Today, (most) pet foods are regulated as feed with all regulatory authorities openly allowing pet food to ignore food law. Today most pet foods do not follow/abide by food law.
And then history repeated itself. Along came human grade pet food, again. And regulatory authorities lost their minds.
Human Grade Pet Foods have caused more sleepless nights and anxiety for regulatory authorities than they want to admit. The mere thought of a pet food being food (human grade) is so foreign to regulatory authorities of today, they don’t understand them. Remember, it’s been 90+ years since food law was actually enforced with pet food; pet food has not been held to food law within the lifetime of any current regulatory authority.
So, we sort of have generations of regulatory authorities (regulatory employees, the employees that trained them, and the employees that trained them) that were trained to understand that pet food is not food, its feed. It was accepted as tradition that pet food does not abide by food law; the same way it’s been done for several regulatory generations. Every regulatory authority has forgotten the original days of pet food, when pet food was actually held to food law.
Human Grade pet food is food. It is that simple. It is the only pet food that abides by food law. But…there is one exception, raw pet food. Emphasis – some – raw pet foods.
Going back to the mindset of regulatory authorities, those in charge believe (have been trained for generations to believe) that only humans eat food (animals eat feed). With that regulatory mindset, humans don’t eat raw meat. In turn, they believe raw meat pet food is not food, because…humans don’t eat raw meat. Thus, regulatory authorities cannot understand human grade raw pet food and refuse to allow the Human Grade claim on raw pet food labels.
Maybe in a few years the light bulb will turn on for them. In the meantime, a Human Grade Raw Pet Food is one that is made under constant USDA inspection, contains human grade supplements, and is handled as required for food. But it will not state Human Grade on the label until pet food regulators agree to human meat standards for pet food (the light bulb).
The verb needs to change…
